"autoloaders are for incompetents"

[Grey_Mana]

I was at the Bass Pro Shop in Hanover Maryland last weekend, wanting to browse at the gun counter. Weekends are always busy enough that one takes a number and waits for a clerk, and since the election things have been crazy.

I started eavesdropping on a conversation between a customer and clerk; the customer was completely new to the idea of gun ownership and wanted something for personal protection. The clerk seemed to be doing an ok job, recommending local ranges and classes.

Then the clerk steered him over to the revolver case, which was a small island of empty next to me, and was talking up their reliability and safety. The customer asked why everyone else was over there (pointing at the cases of autoloaders with people stacked 3 deep, and then at the crowds for shotguns and rifles).

The clerk said "Autoloaders are for incompetents. Only police need that many bullets. Regular folks just end up shooting themselves. Everybody sees movies and wants one of those guns, but they are all trash guns." Bass Pro stocks glock, sig, taurus, browning, etc. [I believe his Bass Pro badge said 'Conrad' although I could be way off.]

The customer almost bought a Taurus raging bull 416 .41 mag revolver, but decided to do some more research first.

 

[Furncliff]

Mouth in motion before mind is in gear.

 

[JohnKSa]

A large percentage of the population knows nothing and has an urgent need to share their ignorance.

A larger percentage of the population believes that strong personal opinions are identical to scientific facts.

 

[Jason M]

The folks at the Bass Pro Shops around here don't like me. The advice I give to their customers while I am standing around usually involves contradicting the clerks comments and the customer walking away to do more research.

Spreading ignorant and outright stupid opinions is killing the gun industry on the consumer side.

 

[Bubba613]

I don't see the problem.

Seriously, you can point out the advantages of the revolver, especially for a new shooter, without disparaging other people's choices.

 

[Deanimator]

So then the NRA Conventional Pistol competitors at the National Matches, not one in a hundred of whom shoot revolvers, is "incompetent"?

When that clerk was born, the doctor should have slapped his mother.

 

[j_charles]

I guess that makes me incompetent...

 

[jbauch357]

Sounds like the guy at Sportsman's Warehouse that was telling me how he was a certified NRA instructor, and could tell just by the way that people handled a pistol of they were mentally fit to own one. Then he continued on to tell me about his featherweight .357 that he carries as a "gut-buster" since it's only good out to 5 feet - and he happily showed me what he meant by "gut-buster" by drawing on me and pointing it at my guts multiple times.

As we were leaving my girlfriend asked why I didn't tear him a new one for pointing at me so many times, I reminded her people that stupid wouldn't ever learn and would probably try to use it as a reason to escalate a jack hole display into a fight...

 

[JR47]

While not approving of his method, there is probably a reason. New shooters. The sales clerk has about 10-15 minutes with them. He has no guarantee that they will be twice-a-week shooters, or take any of the lessons offered, and then practice. The revolver is the easier of the two to use for the minimally trained. Load, point, pull trigger. No safeties, no magazines, and no slide to rack.

His actual statements suck, and his supervisor should be involved, but recommending a revolver to a new shooter, of which you know nothing about, is sound advice.

 

[jpwilly]

Quite the opposite I belive it takes more training and ability to use an autoloader proficiently than a revolver.

 

[mljdeckard]

I'm sure some of the distributors of those autos would like to know that the staff there is steering people away from their autos. Maybe IF THEY WERE TIPPED OFF, THEY WOULD SEND IN A TEST SHOPPER TO TALK TO CONRAD.

I have actually applied for such jobs, and over time, I have come to see that the vast majority of guys behind gun counters don't know what they are talking about, and they missed that third-grade lecture on the difference between fact and opinion. I don't need to be in that group.

 

[EShell]

I live a few miles from this BassPro and the advice the counter guys give must be heard to be believed. Worse in the summer, when all the experts are on loan from the local high school. I avoid going in the like the plague. With the idiotic things I hear the staff say, I feel sometimes like I'm being baited . . .

 

[Hawk]

The Grapevine BP may have changed but when I was in there was a lot of hunting revolvers - .460XVRs, .500s, Ruger Alaskans, etc.

If one is talking hunting, which track was tough to derail one of those BP folks from, a semi-auto would be a dubious choice. I got the distinct impression that competition or defense were not valid uses of handguns and when it comes to whacking Bambi, those rotary hand cannons are the shizzle. I could see them cozying up to a Lee Jurras AutoMag but that'd be about it semi-auto wise unless Magnum Research has joined SCI.

May have been more "I can only see hunting" than having hung around too many intertubz "revolver love threads" though either is a sorry excuse for blathering on as described.

 

[Drail]

So autoloaders aren't really for incompetents?

 

[makarovnik]

It's always about money.

He was just trying to move some revolvers.

 

[BCRider]

Sounds like the guy at Sportsman's Warehouse that was telling me how he was a certified NRA instructor, and could tell just by the way that people handled a pistol of they were mentally fit to own one. Then he continued on to tell me about his featherweight .357 that he carries as a "gut-buster" since it's only good out to 5 feet - and he happily showed me what he meant by "gut-buster" by drawing on me and pointing it at my guts multiple times.

If that happened to me I would SOOOOO have schmoozed him into getting his card for a "friend that wants to take a course" and then have reported the incident to the NRA and maybe even the police. Doing what is did is not only idiotic and stupid to the extreme but can you imagine the turds he's teaching other new shooters? If not directly then by really bad examples in his own firearm handling behaviour?

In the words of Kelly Bundy "the mind wobbles.... ".

 

[franconialocal]

Manager Please!!

I would have gone STRAIGHT to the manager.....no joke.....

 

[HB]

Hey, I only need single shots

 

[moi_self26]

If that happened to me I would SOOOOO have schmoozed him into getting his card for a "friend that wants to take a course" and then have reported the incident to the NRA and maybe even the police. Doing what is did is not only idiotic and stupid to the extreme but can you imagine the turds he's teaching other new shooters? If not directly then by really bad examples in his own firearm handling behaviour?

In the words of Kelly Bundy "the mind wobbles.... ".

I've had an NRA instructor tell me about how many other NRA instructors are idiots and how most of them have unsafe gun habits/behaviors. It is NOT HARD AT ALL to become an NRA instructor!!!

 

[nitetrane98]

I'm beginning to believe that gun owners are becoming a lot like dog trainers. The only thing upon which two dog trainers will agree is that a third trainer is doing it wrong.

 

[BCRider]

I've had an NRA instructor tell me about how many other NRA instructors are idiots and how most of them have unsafe gun habits/behaviors. It is NOT HARD AT ALL to become an NRA instructor!!!

As the national organization that exists to promote shooting and SAFE shooting and avoid all the stereotypes of gun wielding nutbars that need to be controlled for both their safety as well as the safety of the "Great Amaricun Public" that's a scarey observation.

Did I get the accent right?

Up here if that same guy had done that (not that we have any chance of CCW in Canada) just the action of pointing a firearm at ANYONE be it loaded or not is a felony right off the bat.

 

[LightningJoe]

As the national organization that exists to promote shooting and SAFE shooting and avoid all the stereotypes of gun wielding nutbars that need to be controlled for both their safety as well as the safety of the "Great Amaricun Public" that's a scarey observation.

Did I get the accent right?

If you want to do an American accent, just use a Canadian accent. They're exactly the same.

 

[zombienerd]

I think I would have asked to speak to the manager right away. That was uncalled for, in every regard!

I never hesitate to "assist" people who are new at the gunstore.

 

[sturmgewehr]

The only person displaying incompetence is the salesman.

 

[Odd1]

Oh my,
I did not know I was gonna shoot myself


Maybe I should just get rid of them all...